Rabbi Yirmiyahu Kagan

Born in Boston and raised in Hawaii, Rabbi Kagan attended Yale University, graduating with a BA in philosophy. He first began studying Torah at Ohr Sameach while traveling in Israel during his college years. Following the completion of his degree at Yale, Rabbi Kagan returned to Israel to pursue Talmudic studies, eventually becoming a student at Heichal HaTorah and the Mirrer Yeshiva. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg and has regularly attended the classes of Rabbi Moshe Shapiro. Rabbi Kagan is the principal of Midreshet Tehillah, a post-high-school seminary under the auspices of Neve Yerushalayim. In addition to publishing numerous magazine articles, in 1998 Rabbi Kagan published The Jewish Self: Recovering Spirituality in the Modern World. He followed that in 2011 with The Choice to Be: A Jewish Path to Self and Spirituality, which was awarded the 2011 National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought.